Nearly 100 years of research has repeatedly confirmed what the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development concluded in 2003: "Maternal sensitivity" is the strongest and most consistent predictor of a child's development. Her emotional availability to her child, her ability to respond positively, without being overly intrusive, lays the foundation for children's social-emotional health and cognitive development for the rest of their lives.
What mothers themselves don't often realize is that in very ordinary interactions--feeding, bathing, clothing, changing diapers, playing--their natural, sensitive responses shape the brain of their child, building connections that form the "internal working model" for understanding all other relationships.
In a hundred thousand small acts of care she literally forms the core of a child's sense of worth and capacity. In spite of the popular belief that power is wielded through a "public voice," it is the private voice of a mother that shapes a generation.
I love this.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers that I know.
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